[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 239 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 239

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that offshore wind 
     projects along the Atlantic coast require more comprehensive 
   investigations examining the impact to the environment, relevant 
   maritime industries, and national defense before being leased or 
                              constructed.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 21, 2023

  Mr. Van Drew (for himself, Mr. Harris, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. 
 Perry, and Mr. D'Esposito) submitted the following resolution; which 
           was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that offshore wind 
     projects along the Atlantic coast require more comprehensive 
   investigations examining the impact to the environment, relevant 
   maritime industries, and national defense before being leased or 
                              constructed.

Whereas the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), under the direction of the 
        Department of the Interior, has as of March 2023 leased 1,753,818 acres 
        of offshore land for wind development and is planning on leasing another 
        1,700,000 acres off the Central Atlantic coast and additional leases off 
        the Northern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Maine;
Whereas offshore wind turbines are over 900 feet tall, 600 feet higher than 
        standard onshore wind turbines;
Whereas the interarray and offshore export connection cables between wind farms 
        and onshore energy grids will require the dredging of hundreds of miles 
        of ocean floor;
Whereas lease areas sit along known migration routes and foraging areas of North 
        Atlantic right whales, humpback whales, and economically important 
        commercial and recreational fish species;
Whereas disturbances to right whale foraging areas could have population-level 
        effects on the already endangered and stressed species;
Whereas, between December 2022 and March 2023, 23 dead whales have washed ashore 
        on the East Coast, including on the shores of Lido Beach on Long Island, 
        New York, the North Brigantine Natural Area in Brigantine, New Jersey, 
        and the shores of Virginia Beach, Virginia;
Whereas the BOEM and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 
        have an unclear process for determining all contributing causes of death 
        of whales through necropsies;
Whereas NOAA lacks a mechanism to oversee and enforce the parameters of its 
        incidental harassment authorizations of marine mammals issued to 
        offshore wind companies;
Whereas areas leased as of March 2023 for offshore wind turbines sit along 
        established fishing grounds that generate 40 percent of the United 
        States fisheries $4,800,000,000 annual economic output, and provides 
        food for millions of Americans;
Whereas commercial vessel traffic in the Atlantic region, particularly in Coast 
        Guard Districts 1, 5, and 7, is vital to the United States economy in 
        that it serves major East Coast ports by the safe, reliable, and energy-
        efficient transportation of dry and liquid cargos;
Whereas the rerouting of such traffic to accommodate wind lease sites is 
        inefficient and poses a potential risk to the safety of vessel traffic 
        and marine species;
Whereas BOEM, in a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Ocean Wind 
        1 lease sale stated that the presence of offshore wind turbine 
        structures and related radar interference could result in delays within 
        or approaching ports, increase navigational complexity, and create 
        detours to offshore travel or port approaches;
Whereas requests from maritime stakeholders to increase the width of transit 
        lanes to a minimum of 2 nautical miles to ensure safer transit through 
        wind farms have been disregarded;
Whereas a proposed alternative turbine layout with wider transit lanes was 
        rejected in a record of decision (ROD) by the BOEM for the Vineyard Wind 
        1 offshore wind project in part due to potential delays to the project 
        that would be inconsistent with timelines set in President Biden's 
        Executive Order 14008;
Whereas such ROD stated that ``the combination of the technical complexities and 
        project delay would preclude [Vineyard Wind 1's] ability to meet the 
        current contractual obligations with Massachusetts distribution 
        companies'';
Whereas the contractual obligation refers to a power purchase agreement between 
        Vineyard Wind 1 and the State of Massachusetts, which was signed 2 years 
        prior to the ROD, and required 800 megawatts of energy output;
Whereas the required energy output prevents serious consideration of alternative 
        requests for wind farm layout and number of turbines installed;
Whereas BOEM, in a draft EIS for the Ocean Wind 1 lease sale off the coast of 
        New Jersey, determined that the proposed wind turbine structures would 
        increase the risk of vessel collisions, allisions, and spills which 
        could result in personal injury or loss of life;
Whereas the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined 
        that wind turbine generator interference on marine vessel radar will 
        lead to unforeseen complications and degraded performance, causing loss 
        of radar contact that is particularly consequential when conducting 
        search and rescue operations in and adjacent to offshore wind farms;
Whereas offshore wind farms will interfere with coastal high frequency radar 
        systems used for United States Coast Guard (USCG) search and rescue 
        operations;
Whereas existing port access route studies (PARS) related to offshore wind do 
        not properly examine potential radar interference and the impact on 
        navigation within and around wind farms;
Whereas the USCG in its Areas Offshore of Massachusetts and Rhode Island PARS 
        determined that the potential for offshore wind turbine interference 
        with marine radar is site specific and depends on factors including 
        turbine size, array layouts, number of turbines, construction materials, 
        and vessel types;
Whereas the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined 
        that wind turbine generator interference decreases the effectiveness of 
        marine vessel radar mounted on all vessel classes and that the sizes of 
        anticipated offshore wind farms across the United States Outer 
        Continental Shelf at the scale of anticipated deployment will exacerbate 
        this situation;
Whereas the potential safety and maritime supply chain impacts of navigational 
        and radar interference related to proposed offshore wind leases has not 
        been duly evaluated or mitigated;
Whereas the Department of Defense's Offshore Wind Mission Compatibility 
        Assessment ruled much of the offshore east coast a ``wind exclusion 
        zone'', for defense and defense training reasons;
Whereas, according to the Department of Defense, ARSR-4 primary long-range air 
        surveillance radars would be ``very susceptible'' to interference from 
        wind turbines, and that ``target tracking abilities decrease as turbine 
        number, size, and density increases'';
Whereas the Department of Defense acknowledged in May 2019 that noise generated 
        by offshore wind turbines disturbs acoustically sensitive environments 
        and may interfere with offensive- and defensive-based military sensors, 
        and that currently there are no Department of Defense-supported 
        unclassified studies that have been conducted regarding this topic; and
Whereas the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Wallops Flight 
        Facility stated in 2022 that offshore wind farms built within wind 
        exclusion zones could potentially be flight obstructions, be impacted by 
        falling debris from launches, and would impact the facility's ability to 
        accept and expand new technologies: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the Atlantic coast offshore wind leases represent a 
        transformative industrialization of vital environmental and 
        maritime resources of the United States;
            (2) the potential impacts of this industrialization have 
        not been duly evaluated or mitigated by the responsible Federal 
        agencies;
            (3) Congress should--
                    (A) conduct investigations to determine the true 
                impacts of offshore wind development; and
                    (B) use the findings of such investigations to 
                develop legislation to mitigate potential negative 
                environmental or economic impacts of offshore wind 
                development; and
            (4) leasing and construction of offshore wind farms along 
        the Atlantic coast should be put under immediate moratorium 
        until these investigations and findings are presented to 
        Congress and the public.
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